Action Request! Bastrop & Lee County Water Lowdown (pun intended!)

You may not know that although the plan for the 100-mile pipeline to take 71,000,000 gallons per day from the Simsboro Aquifer (a portion of the great Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer) underlying Bastrop and Lee counties is on hold, there is now a total of 131,000,000 gallons per day in permit applications (106,000,000 of which are for export) coming to a vote next week by the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District.

The approval or rejection of these permit applications starts a week from today, on Wednesday, March 20th, 7 pm at Bastrop City Hall at a meeting of the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District (LPGCD). EndOp’s (Frankie Limmer’s company) request for a 56,000,000 gallons per day permit will be addressed at the April 17th meeting of the LPGCD in Giddings at Giddings City Hall.

Therefore, we hope you will use the email box below to send a letter directly to the LPGCD and your reps in the Texas legislature (you can add your own comments in the box just above our suggesgted letter but please be polite and speak to your own concerns and experiences with water) AND/OR call LPGCD at 512-360-5088 ANDPLEASE SHOW UP at the LPGCD meeting NEXT Wednesday, March 20th, at 7 pm at Bastrop City Hall (1311 Chestnut map here).

The message below will be sent to the LPGCD’s Board, your State Representative Tim Kleinschmidt and both State Senators for our area, Senator Kirk Watson for Bastrop and Senator Glenn Hegar for Lee County.

All the water being (or to be) exported is needed by special interests groups that have land that is worthless without a water supply. I do not feel water under local Bastrop and Lee County landowners should be used to financially support developers/speculators elsewhere. They gambled on acquiring water rights from us to make themselves
financially wealthy; that is their problem, not our’s.

As a rural resident with a well, I am directly dependent on the aquifer for living. Selling it literally from under me will make my home unaffordable and endanger my life in Bastrop County. I would have included this in my letter to officials but the editor would not allow editing.

The selling of water (exporting) that is in the Simsboro Aquifer under Bastrop and Lee Counties must examined and carefully considered as to effect on both counties future. Water is going to be needed for the citizens of our two counties. Once you allow these permits and the water is being pumped out of these two counties, a present has been set that is difficult to recover as well as the water is gone.

While geologists and engineers study aquifers the methods are more of an art than a science. The most critical item related to aquifers is their ability to recharge to sustain the amount of water pumped out. With experts predicting droughts in the future, the question of sustaining the aquifer pumping capacity is highly questionable.

An important factor that should be considered is the purpose of exported water. In most cases it increases the development in cities that do not improve the economy of our two counties. Our citizens don’t care many benefits. It also encourages wasteful use of the water exported. A large percentage of this water will be used for watering lawns and landscaping which results in a lot of water going down the street gutter. A glowing example are friends in Hays, Travis and Williamson Counties, water is used for this purpose which produces nothing except aesthetics not food or meat. Also, it is more important to have the highland lakes with sufficient water for boating rather than producing food (rice).

With our current philosophy, we are hell bent in covering up some of best farm land with houses and shopping mall not only central Texas but across Texas and the nation. With outlook, We will in the near future have to import most of our food, which if the producing countries want can cut off our food supply.

While Texas is becoming more urban and the legislature is made up of representatives from urban area, farmer and rancher (producers of food) are going end up not having water.

A corporation/individual should not be allowed to take our water for its/his/her own profit. We depend on the aquifer water for our households.

Rep. Kleinschmidt and Sen. Watson are supposed to represent us, but I don’t call allowing our water to be sold off for private profit — hundreds of thousands of gallons at a time — representing us. So, Kleinschmidt and Watson, protect our water and help us stop this practice.

BTW, how much money is Kleinschmidt making from “leasing” his water rights in Lee County? Isn’t “leasing” the same as selling if the water is disappearing from the aquifer?

I’m a resident of Bastrop County and rely on a private well for all of my water needs, as do all of my neighbors. These shallow alluvial wells are very sensitive to declines in the water tables and some are already imperiled with the recent several year’s drought. We have virtually no legal recourse should our wells go dry, and no protection from the looming prospect of depletion, should an industrial user or water rancher decide to export water from under their land. It is time to bring state law into the 21st century and to recognize that water is the same whether it is on the surface or underground and that surface and subterranean water supplies should both be conserved and protected.

Water supplies are likely already over-allocated in light of projected growth in Texas and in the Lee and Bastrop County areas. Water conservation should be our first priority, rather than building boondoggle projects to export water to areas already beyond capacity. We also have a moral obligation to ensure that rivers are healthy and that flow is adequate to sustain wildlife throughout the river basins (Colorado, Guadalupe, etc.) and to the Gulf of Mexico.

I am very concerned about exporting Bastrop water. I live rural. I depend on a well for my own water needs and my horses. (I live on 29 acres.) I also have a stock tank that is fed by a spring. During dry period the spring can go dry. From October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011, I only received 9.21 inches at my ranch. My tank went dry for the first time since I purchased the property in January 1999. A year before, we had the worst 18 month drought on record. My tank went down to about a foot deep but did not go dry. We seem to be in a pattern of drought. Bastrop needs its groundwater water for future development and to recharge the Colorado River.

The aquifer is already being pumped and transported out of our area by Blue Water from Milam and Burelson counties. The water is already being transported TODAY by a pipeline. That’s right folks Post Oak groundwater district already allows Blue Water to pump and transport 71,000 acre feet of our water to Travis, Williamson and Hays county from our aquifer!

We have given our fair share of the Simsboro aquifer to growing communities to the west. Lost Pines groundwater district should say NO to anymore transporting of Simsboro water from our area or else our towns won’t be able to attract business or keep our agriculture alive. SAY NO TO FURTHER TRANSPORT OF WATER OUT OF RURAL COMMUNITIES. PLENTY IS ALREADY LEAVING FROM NEIGHBORING COUNTIES!!

Dwayne — thanks for pointing this out. I hope you can make it to Bastrop tomorrow and tell the LPGCD the same and urge them to take a stand that the Post Oak GCD didn’t have the guts to do. Any chance you can come, Dwayne? Linda Curtis, Independent Texans

I’ve clicked and clicked on the sample letter above and have not been able to put any of my comments onto this letter. It is my desire to add my own words to this letter for personal effect which is much better than just sending it as is.

This proposed action to divert water from “smaller” counties to “larger” ones seems dangerously like taking from the poor to feed the rich. Traditionally, water rights were held by the owners of the land above the source. This legal right has been manipulated by powerful forces who wish to avoid “unpleasant” water conservation in high population areas. Taking our water will cause us great harm in many ways while business, governments and homes elsewhere will waste our vital, life-giving resource. Politicians – take note – use your influence to protect the “little guys” and you will be remembered with respect. Continue to serve only the rich and powerful and regular people will know you as the enemy.